Australian Rohingyas duped with fake Bangladeshi visas

January 10, 2019 | Brainwave Science

SITUATION

An officer working with the Bangladesh High Commission stationed in the Australian Capital city of Canberra has been alleged of be-fooling at least 20 Rohingya refugees. The officer had allegedly issued fake tourist visas to the members of the group. The Rohingya community in Australia filed complaints with Australian police with regards to this matter.

Last month, the group of cheated Rohingyas were travelling from Australia to visit their families, some of who live in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazaar refugee camps. It is now the world’s largest refugee settlement. These refugees were informed that their visas were invalid and were then sent back to Australia.

The members of the group had reportedly approached an employee of the Bangladesh High Commission who they were told could assist with the issuing of visas.

The affected persons sent a payment of $350 each and their travel documents to the residential address of the employee.

Bangladesh’s High Commissioner Sufiur Rahman said that a report from the Bangladeshi Authorities is awaited and the involvement of their staff cannot be established yet. He also confirmed that the signature of the High Commission’s Second Secretary, Ms. Shamima Pervin, had been forged on the false visas. At the same time, the Australian Federal Police is investigating the case.

Mr Faruk is one of the at least 20 Rohingya Refugees who fell victim to this scam by the High Commission employee.

He traveled from to Dhaka from Australia on 19th December 2018 to meet his mother, wife and two children. But he was detained at Dhaka’s International Airport on suspicion of travelling on a fake visa. He was subsequently deported.

CHALLENGE

The case of fake visas being issued to People of Bangladeshi origin in Australia is not isolated. Several crooks have been misusing the plight of the Rohingyas for their benefit. The Rohingyas are exploited at all points during their transit. Be it outwards from Myanmar, or into other countries, or even during their journey to meet their relatives in refugee camps. The plight of the Rohingyas is also being misused by the extremists to recruit them into the ISIS. Read more here.

The Rohingya refugee Crisis of 2015 was caused by events which date back to the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. Bangladesh was formed in 1971. Between 1824 and 1948, there was heavy migration of laborer’s from India and Bangladesh into Myanmar. After Myanmar’s independence in 1948, the government declared this migration as illegal. Citizenship was denied to the Rohingya population. Ever since then, the Rohingya people have faced a lot of hardships. They have been described as the most persecuted people on Earth. The Rohingya often try to enter Southeast Asian states illegally and request humanitarian support from host countries. More than 720,000 Rohingya refugees when they arrived exhausted, hungry and often traumatized at Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh.

Rohingya refugee numbers in the U.S. have increased significantly since 2014. In 2015, the number of Refugees from Myanmar increased from 650 to 2,573. Another 2,173 arrived in 2016. President Obama removed the sanctions originally imposed on Myanmar which enabled the U.S. to help more refugees. Today the biggest population of Rohingya refugees and immigrants in the U.S. can be found in Chicago, Illinois.

The Rohingya people are considered “stateless entities”. It is an important global objective to arrange peaceful shelter and occupation for the Rohingya people. Coupled with this, it is also essential that those individuals and organizations which exploit the Rohingya are prosecuted. To reduce the suffering of the Rohingya and to expedite justice, the investigative agencies must coordinate with their global counterparts and make use of the most modern intelligence collection methods available.

WHY ICOGNATIVE?

To bring an end to the persecution of the unfortunate Rohingya people, nothing less of a revolution in intelligence gathering will do. The investigative agencies will have to be two steps ahead of the criminals. A criminal must think twice before attempting to dupe the Rohingya, or any innocent person for that sake. For this, there is a need for speedy and accurate justice. Existing investigative techniques are often only usable in specific applications. Also, they might be subjective, ineffective, cost-intensive, time-consuming, torturous or unreliable.

Brainwave Science has unveiled a revolutionary technology which addresses all these concerns. It is called iCognative and it quickly detects concealed information by measuring brain waves. Unlike, DNA and Fingerprints, which are uncovered in only 1-2% of the cases, iCognative is applicable to over 85% of all criminal and civil cases. Also, DNA can only be successfully applied when investigators collect and preserve fingerprints and biological samples. This process is time-consuming, labor-intensive and inherently expensive. Whereas iCognativemakes use of the information stored in the subject’s brain, and this can be detected even years after the crime was committed.

iCognative can determine through the systematic use of crime-related evidence, whether the subject’s brain contains crime-related information or not. He will only be aware of certain information if he was involved in planning and/or execution of the crime. iCognative system exposes the subject to crime-related images, words or phrases (stimuli) using a computer screen. The subject wears a specialized wireless headset which measures their brain response whenever a stimulus is flashed on the screen. After this 45-minute test, the system quickly analyses the responses and tells if the subject’s brain contains awareness of the crime-related information, with over 99% accuracy.

In the case of the duping of the Rohingya travelers by the Bangladesh High Commission employee, gathered evidence can be used as stimuli. These could comprise images of the fake visa documents issued to the Rohingya travelers, pictures of the victims in case they visited him personally, images of the signature of the High Commission’s Second Secretary, Ms Shamima Pervin, details of dates and times when the payments were received by the suspect, names and pictures of those who might have recommended the services of suspect to the affected persons, etc.

iCognative test help the investigation agencies determine the level of involvement of the subject in the criminal activity. Moreover, the test can also be used to verify the hierarchical and leadership structure within criminal organizations.

The icing on the cake is that iCognative manages this without the use of coercion, torture and other negative activities one usually associates with interrogation.

Investigative agencies can appreciate the numerous advantages of using iCognative. The goal of Brainwave Science is to eliminate human suffering and torture during the investigative process, and iCognativedoes just that.

Australian Federal Police and all concerned investigative agencies must give iCognative a try, and experience first-hand, the long-awaited revolution in the field of intelligence gathering.